title: Effectiveness of pain relief in labour: survey of 1000 mothers.
abstract: The amount of pain that had been experienced by 1000 women during vaginal delivery of a live child was determined by interview within 48 hours of delivery. Patients had been offered a choice of analgesia, and 536 had received epidural analgesia: pain relief was greatest in this group, just over half having had a painless labour. The duration of pain was also reduced by a third in this group even though patients who had received an epidural block had tended to have longer labour and an incidence of assisted delivery of 51% compared with 6% in the remainder. Seventy-two per cent of the patients receiving an epidural had had as much pain as they had expected. A similar proportion (70%) was reported with simpler analgesic methods, suggesting that women may expect a certain amount of pain in labour and request further analgesic treatment when this is exceeded.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000773:Anesthesia, Obstetrical / Q000379:methods*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004338:Drug Combinations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007751:Labor, Induced; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008614:Meperidine; D009609:Nitrous Oxide; D010100:Oxygen; D059408:Pain Management; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; C001147:Entonox; D008614:Meperidine; D009609:Nitrous Oxide; D010100:Oxygen